Playhouse Theatre, Sheffield – 4th April 2025
Reviewed by Sophie Dodworth
5*****
For one night only Velma Celli is performing at the Sheffield Playhouse. And what a night it is! Velma (Ian Stroughair) probably couldn’t pick a better theatre venue than the Playhouse. It is small, intimate and the audience are able to get up close and personal, which works wonders with the ambience of the show and extremely useful for the audience participation, which there is plenty of.
Velmas entrance is spectacular as her energy bursts through the side curtain, she is colourful, charismatic and sparkly, donned in large sequins, all over her dress. Straight into the audience as she performs her first number, the audience giggling along right from the off…’what’s your name’ she asks a man on the front row, just as he is about to answer ‘nobody cares’, getting an even bigger laugh.
Velma takes us on her true-life story through growth and experiences of drag and the story of coming out, which resonates throughout the audience. She loves to mention her times in a previous life of performing on some famous musicals on the West End and what a career history she has had, being in Cats, Rent and many more well-known, widely loved shows. There are stories of meetings with famous people, past drag experiences, lots of monumental moments in life which the audience can relate to. This is always a great way of drawing the audience in to feel comfortable and who doesn’t love to feel nostalgic?
There are many musical numbers, all which have their own tale wrapped around it to give that extra bit of meaning and some emotional pieces, including a beautiful rendition of a song from Taboo – written by Boy George, one of Velmas idols. Some more stand out pieces of music are, I’ll Cover You from Rent, I Want to Break Free by Queen, Under Pressure, Sweet Transvestite from The Rocky Horror Show and her encore song which was ‘I Am What I Am’. All these numbers are sung beautifully, Velmas voice is pretty spectacular and never falters. Goosebumps galore!
There are not many performers that can walk on to a stage and entertain the way that Velma Celli does. Holding an audience for just over an hour is not an easy feat, but Velma smashes it and makes it look easy. Some people are just born to perform and that is true here…get to see Velma Celli if you can, a fantastic piece of theatre to make you smile, laugh and come away truly entertained.